A young poet drops his girlfriend off at her parents' house and is amazed by its size. He bumps into her father, meets her mother and sister, and they all end up spending a long day together; fueled by conversation, food and libations.
EN
“What makes What Does That Nature Say to You especially potent as a subtle exposé of character is its layered use of video form. Hong’s withdrawn gaze is interrupted by sudden movements, like pans across space and crash zooms into ongoing conversations. These don’t overwhelm the movie, and they serve to emphasize specific beats, but they also fly in the face of Hong’s usual sense of measured control, as though a rudimentary digital camera were being handled by an over-eager novice operator hired to document the weekend’s activities. The film is practically a work of amateur videography, a home video waiting to capture memories before they’re made — or a wedding video in which a wedding may or may not occur.”
Siddhant Adlakha1
“It’s possible to feel simultaneously amused, bemused, intrigued and exasperated at Hong’s film-making, to wonder if the drinking and the consequent inevitable cathartic outburst are in fact cathartic or dramatically meaningful, to wonder what it is leading to. But arguably the enigma is the point. This movie lodged in my mind a little more than Hong’s earlier films, perhaps because it is less contrived and it features a genuinely funny and complex opening scene.”
Peter Bradshaw2
- 1Siddhant Adlakha, “‘What Does That Nature Say to You’ Review: Hong Sangsoo Takes a Blurry Lens to Early Adulthood,” Variety, 20 February 2025.
- 2Peter Bradshaw, “What Does That Nature Say to You review – funny and complex Korean dad-boyfriend standoff,” The Guardian, 22 July 2025.
